By Bill Lucia | Editor
Tod Leiweke, CEO of the Kraken NHL team and one of the key figures pushing to return the SuperSonics NBA franchise to Seattle, dished up some economic words of warning for state lawmakers yesterday.
Leiweke’s beef isn’t with the new income tax on millionaire earners. He said he’s on track to pay the tax and isn’t necessarily bothered by that. Troubling him: how majority Democrats in Olympia are managing the state’s finances and a souring mood among business leaders questioning if Washington is where they want to be. “In my time, I have not felt as much fear in the business community as I feel today,” Leiweke said.
“This isn’t about the millionaire tax. This is about an insatiable appetite of spending beyond your means,” he added during an Association of Washington Business event. “I’ve been a lifelong Democrat. I’m telling the Democratic Party: ‘It is time to wake up.’ We can be a blue state that has a fiscal plan. Today, we’re a blue state without a fiscal plan.”
Also in today’s edition…
A Washington delegation heads to an airshow outside London, hunting for opportunities to boost the state’s aerospace industry.
President Donald Trump claims the nation’s election infrastructure is vulnerable to foreign cyberattacks.
The federal government seeks to shift grizzly bear management to states.
And, an attorney for the state of Alaska is detained by ICE and sent to the immigrant detention center in Tacoma.
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Leiweke’s warning on businesses and the budget
In his comments at the Seattle event, Leiweke flagged concerns about recent credit rating agency reports that said the state’s financial outlook is trending negative, and Democrats’ decision this year to tap an overfunded pension plan for other parts of the budget. “The average taxpayer is not getting their money’s worth,” he said. He also said he’s “shocked” by how many businesspeople he knows who are looking to exit the state and pointed to Starbucks’ recent decision to expand in Nashville. “That was a company born here,” he said. “There’s other companies, right now as we speak, talking about it and probably meeting about relocating out of the state. We’ve got to reverse this trend.”
By Jerry Cornfield
A 55-person group of aerospace suppliers, business leaders and state officials from Washington is heading to the Farnborough International Airshow in the United Kingdom. The expo starts Monday and runs five days. Among those joining the trip: U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., state Sen. Marko Liias, D-Edmonds, and officials from the state Department of Commerce. The state expects to spend $110,000 from Commerce’s budget for the trip. Officials say it’s an important venue for drumming up new business opportunities. Boeing will be there, but is not part of the state delegation. The company will display a full-size interior of its 777X, an airplane manufactured in Everett.
President Donald Trump addresses the nation from the East Room of the White House on July 16, 2026 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Saul Loeb/Getty Images)
By Jacob Fischler and Sam Gauntt
The nation’s election infrastructure is vulnerable to cyberattacks by foreign actors, President Donald Trump said during a primetime address Thursday night, citing a batch of documents he declassified — but providing no proof broad interference actually occurred or affected an election outcome.
Standing behind a lectern at the White House, Trump said during the 2020 election, the People’s Republic of China carried out the “largest compromise of election data in history,” and said varyingly that China had illicitly accessed tens of millions or up to 220 million voters’ personal data.
Democrats and advocates quickly criticized the remarks as another attempt by Trump to give Republicans an advantage in the midterms and to sow distrust of results, following his firing of Election Assistance Commission members, demands by his administration for state voter rolls, an executive order limiting mail-in ballots and more.
“Vote-by-mail is safe, secure, & convenient. Washington voters have mailed in their ballots for years with no credible evidence of widespread fraud,” said Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., in a statement on social media. “Trump is still trying to undermine faith in our elections — particularly when he doesn’t like the outcome.”
By Micah Drew
The federal government is planning to shift management of grizzly bears in the contiguous U.S. to the states. A proposed rule from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service does not remove the grizzly bear from the Endangered Species list (though it notes the agency is considering a separate determination related to the listing) or change geographic boundaries of the management plan. Instead, it is the first step towards increasing state management of grizzly bears, said Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. Many environmental groups criticized the rule as harmful to the species. The Republican governors of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho applauded the move.
By Corinne Smith
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested an Alaska state attorney in Anchorage and has been holding him at the immigrant detention facility in Tacoma, Washington, according to an agency spokesperson. Shucheng Yang, a 32-year-old Chinese national, was arrested July 10. “Yang violated the terms of his admission and is a deportable alien,” said Jason Chudy, an ICE Public Affairs officer, by email. He said Yang is currently detained in the Northwest ICE Processing Center, pending immigration proceedings. Yang is an attorney with the Alaska Department of Law’s labor, business and corporations section, according to the state employee database.
ICYMI
It’s official: WA voters will get to weigh in on new income tax | by Jerry Cornfield
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